


ambiguous

by Anonymous



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - College/University, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, M/M, unfriendly acquaintances to friends to lovers lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 23:36:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16922538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Jisung was convinced he really didn't like Minho, but a term paper, an engagement party, a night out, and a whole semester together might just prove him otherwise.





	ambiguous

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bitsori](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitsori/gifts).



> *** HELLO miss bitsori yk my recipient dropped out and i feel so bad abt it but u keep on cheering me up so this fic is yours now
> 
> some disclaimers  
> \- i didnt mean for it to be this long im sorry  
> \- english isnt my first language so pls forgive the mistakes  
> \- uni is based on google and some of the shit i know so pls forgive mistakes inconsistencies etc etc  
> ok thats all i hope u enjoy reading merry christmas/happy holidays!!!

Han Jisung sat inside the library, staring at the laptop in front of him just like he’d already been doing for the past thirty minutes or so; it didn’t matter that the laptop had been on sleep mode since a while ago— that was how distracted Jisung was as he waited for his  _ partner  _ to arrive so they could work on the term paper he very much didn’t want to think about. The other guy insisted they work on it now, though, and Jisung was far too tired at the time to argue.

See, Jisung didn’t want to be partners with Lee Minho. He didn’t want to be partners with anyone, really. He would’ve liked to write the term paper all on his own, mainly because he liked to push things aside until he really needed to work on them, and he was sure anyone he worked with wouldn’t appreciate his procrastinating tendencies. His professor insisted they work in pairs, though, saying it would be better for everyone because,  _ hey, two heads were better than one, right?  _ Too bad Jisung really liked his  _ one _ head, and frankly, Jisung would have found it a lot more bearable if he were paired up with anyone else instead of Minho, but because both of them weren’t present on the day the pairs were decided, it made sense that the two of them ended being teamed up with each other. That was also the one and only time Jisung had ever regretted ditching class, but that didn’t really matter now. 

The term paper was the least of Jisung’s concern as of the moment, though, what with the upcoming finals week, the flood of exams and other requirements that held much more weight than this stupid term paper for a class he just took to fill in his required units. If he had known this class would be  _ this  _ demanding, he wouldn’t even have taken it in the first place, but since Felix had told him it was a fun class, naturally Jisung believed it  _ was  _ a fun class because it was Felix who’d told him so and, usually, the two of them enjoyed the same things. If it were Seungmin who had told Jisung the class would be fun, he wouldn’t have believed it, because Seungmin found even the most boring classes fun.

The hell of a week that Jisung was dreading wasn’t really what he worried for the most— as of the moment, at least. Right now, what really had him preoccupied was his brother’s engagement party later that evening. Younghyun — the  _ perfect _ brother, role model, man, person Jisung was sure he could never become — had just announced last month that he had already proposed to his girlfriend for more than three years. And although Jisung was definitely happy for his brother, he just couldn’t help but feel pressured, because his brother was doing really well in his life right now, and he seemed like he already had things figured out.

But Jisung? Jisung wasn’t even sure if he liked his degree program. He felt lost, and he knew he looked lost, and  _ lost _ wouldn’t exactly be a good look for tonight, especially when lots of his prying relatives were going to be there to see him.

Another thing the poor boy was worried about was making and leaving a good impression on his future sister-in-law’s family. Seungmin had only laughed at Jisung when he’d first voiced out his worries about it, and had insisted that worrying about his brother’s future in-laws was definitely unnecessary. While Jisung did believe his best friend, he still couldn’t help but feel  _ unnecessarily  _ nervous. He guessed he just didn’t want to ruin anything for his brother, especially because it was his brother’s fiancée’s family who were hosting the event.

On top of those, there was also their cousin Jimin, who lived in Canada with her parents and Younghyun (or Brian, as Jimin liked to call him) fow a while, back when he used to study there. Jisung loved spending time with Jimin; she was always fun to be with, and always willing to engage in playful banter with Jisung (and his brother and his brother’s friends, too). The only problem Jisung had was that sometimes, Jimin tended to get  _ too real, _ and those were the times her words would start to sting a bit— and also that one stupid deal that Jisung had stupidly agreed to two years ago when he’d gone to visit his relatives in Canada. And now Jimin was back in Korea, and more than ready to follow up with their agreement.

With all the stuff going on in Jisung’s head at the moment, he didn’t even notice the person who just sat down across from him at the table. until said person cleared his throat loudly enough for everyone inside the library to hear.

“Oh, fuck,” Jisung jumped a bit in his seat, making too much noise that the librarian looked at him sternly. “Goddammit, Lee.”

“Thanks,” Lee Minho replied with a smirk. “But hard pass, Han.” Jisung just rolled his eyes in return. “Anyway, sorry I’m a bit late,” the older continued, choosing to ignore the slight scowl on Jisung’s face. Minho was not late, actually; Jisung had agreed to meet him  _ outside _ of the library at 5:30 P.M. Minho was more than thirty minutes early, but of course Jisung didn’t tell him that. He was sure Minho knew, anyway. 

The  _ partners _ (Jisung decided he hated that word now) decided to work at a nearby cafe a few minutes’ walk from the college library that was about to close. Jisung registered Minho talking while they were walking, probably about the paper they were supposed to work on, but he didn’t really understand anything and just nodded whenever he thought he heard a pause. 

“Han, there’s a car,” Minho said.

“Yeah,” Jisung nodded. “Whatever you say—.”

“Hey!” Minho grabbed Jisung just in time as the car drove past them. “Careful, Han, wouldn’t want to be doing our paper at the hospital.”

“This was supposed to be a bike lane,” Jisung hissed. He glared at Minho before shaking the other’s hands away. “You should’ve warned me!”

“I—,” Minho started, staring at Jisung in what seemed to him like disbelief. “You should be using your eyes more than your mouth.”

“You—.”

“You should be using your short legs, too,” said Minho, who started walking faster, leaving Jisung to sprint behind while glaring at the older’s head.

“You’re not even  _ that _ taller than me,” Jisung whined.

 

The cafe was small and cozy, and also empty, perfect for brainstorming a term paper Jisung was pretty sure none of them cared about that much. He hadn’t been to this cafe before but judging by the way Minho easily drifted into conversation with the barista while he was ordering, Jisung would say the older was a regular. He could see the appeal, though; it was quiet inside the cafe, with only the soft music coming from some speaker he couldn’t locate and the sound of coffee being made being heard.

While Minho was busy making small talk with one of the baristas, Jisung brought out his laptop, intending to at least start doing some research, only to end up staring at the blank screen again. He was only broken from his reverie when Minho arrived, setting down a tray of iced black coffee and a slice of cheesecake. He told Jisung to go order food first, and normally Jisung would, but today just wasn’t that kind of day.   
“Okay, so what do we want to write about, exactly?” Minho asked after bringing out his own laptop. 

“Yeah,” Jisung nodded absentmindedly.

“We shouldn’t have been teamed up.”

“Yeah.”

“We’re gonna fail this class.”

“Yeah.”

“My cats’ paws smell nice.”

“Yeah.”

“Sewers smell nice, too.”

“Yeah.”

Minho laughed. “Han, wake up.”

“What?” Jisung was once again shaken from his reverie, this time by fingers snapping in front of his face.

“This term paper’s not gonna write itself, Han,” 

Jisung sighed heavily. “I’m sorry,” he said, closing his laptop shut. “Can we just do this some other time?” He didn’t want to have to reschedule and he genuinely felt apologetic for asking to, but he really couldn’t concentrate because of overthinking. To his surprise, Minho closed his laptop down as well.

“Alright,” the older nodded. “Just tell me when.”

“Yeah,” Jisung said without looking up, although he had to admit he didn’t expect Minho to agree that easily. Jisung also didn’t expect him to push the plate of cheesecake slice towards him.

“You seem like you need it,” Minho said.

“What—?”

“Jisung!” 

_ Oh, god,  _ the poor boy thought.  _ Why? _ “Hey, noona,” he greeted as Jimin suddenly made her way to where they were seated. “What are you doing here?”

“Aren’t you excited to see me?“ she answered. “I’m meeting up with old friends. What are  _ you _ doing here?”

“Noona, I literally just saw you before going—.”

“Oh, who’s this?” she asked as soon as she noticed the other male sitting across Jisung. “Oh, my god, Jisung, is this your boyfriend?” she exclaimed, and Jisung had never wanted the ground to eat him whole as much as he did now. “Hi,” Jimin greeted, extending out her hand to Minho. “I’m Jimin.”

_ Shit _ , Jisung thought.  _ Shit shit shit shit shit. No. _ He desperately wanted to tell Minho not to respond to anything, trying to communicate through weird, ununderstandable facial expressions.

Minho seemed to have something else in mind. “Hi, Jimin-ssi,” he shook her hand and gave her a sweet smile. “Lee Minho.”

“Ah, Minho-ssi,” she answered. “Nice to finally meet you. Jisung doesn’t talk about you much, you know?”

“Oh?” Minho looked at Jisung and gave him a stupid smirk the latter wanted so badly to wipe off the older’s stupidly beautiful face. Jisung was really about to make him shut up, but what Minho said next took him by surprise and almost made him choke on his own spit. “Well, Jimin-ssi,  _ Jisungie _ doesn’t talk about you, either. Don’t worry.”

“Jisung, I like this guy.” Jimin laughed. “Lee Minho-ssi, I like you, but I really gotta go now. I’ll see you guys later. Make sure Jisung cleans himself up, okay? Bye!” Jimin waved goodbye at the two of them before leaving them.

“Oh, god,” Jisung squeaked. He finally couldn’t care enough that he was now reaching for Minho’s cheesecake, which he offered to Jisung anyway so it was  _ his _ cheesecake now.

“So,” Minho started after a few minutes of precious silence. “ _ Boyfriend, _ huh?”

“Shut up or I’ll stab you with this fork.” Jisung wouldn’t, really, but with Lee Minho he always found himself wanting to have the last word. And maybe… it was also a challenge; he wanted to see if Minho would actually shut up for once. Surprisingly, he did.

It felt weird to Jisung, how short their petty banters that day were. He was used to them being too long that someone, usually one of Jisung’s friends, always needed to shut them up. But again, that wasn’t something Jisung wanted to think about. He already had too much on his plate. And he still didn’t like Minho, but that was quite irrelevant.

“Why aren’t you leaving yet?” he scowled at Minho, who was just eyeing him as he stuffed his face with food.

“I’d like to watch you be embarrassed for a few more minutes.”

“Fuck you.”

“Told you, Han. Hard pass.”

“As if you’d  _ actually _ .”

Minho, who was sipping on his coffee, almost spit some of it out on Jisung. Luckily, he didn’t; he just coughed for a few minutes, making Jisung feel oddly proud that he could make the older flustered. But he wasn’t supposed to want to make someone he didn’t like feel flustered, right? Jisung wasn't too sure.

“So,” Minho said again after a while, pushing the cup of coffee near the center of the table where Jisung could easily reach it. “You told her— Jimin-ssi, right? You told Jimin-ssi I’m your boyfriend?”

Now it was Jisung’s turn to choke on Minho’s americano, which he'd already regretted reaching for. “No, Lee,” he said when he was done coughing. “I did  _ not _ tell her that. I would  _ never _ tell her that.” Jisung really didn’t tell Jimin he was dating Lee Minho. He just told her he was dating someone, and Minho, of all people, was conveniently there when Jimin saw him. And Minho, to Jisung’s distress, actually went with it without even batting an eyelash. Now, Jisung didn’t know what else to do but to tell Jimin the truth.

 

Two years ago, while Jimin was showing Jisung around some of the places she frequented in Canada, somehow the two of them ended up having an agreement. Jimin had come up with it while the two of them were talking about how she always went on a lot dates, whether she was in Canada or in Korea, while Jisung literally had only gone on exactly one date that didn’t even go that well, and even that one date was a set up with one of Jimin’s friends, too. Why his cousin seemed to be so invested in his lovelife, Jisung wasn’t sure, but he did appreciate the concern to an extent.

“You have to experience stuff like this, Jisung!” Jimin had explained as she was setting up a Bumble profile for Jisung. “You can’t just stay up all night working or studying or whatever, trying to be your brother.”

“I’m not trying to be like him,” Jisung replied with a tired sigh. “I can never be like him.”

“Exactly! That’s why you should try out some stuff, meet some new people. Go find yourself, or something like that.”

“Please give me back my phone.” 

“You think Brian doesn’t come home drunk on weekdays?” Jimin continued, ignoring him. “ _ Weekdays _ , Jisung, not just weekends!”

“I’m korean, noona, and a minor. That would be illegal.”

“Yes, but the point is your brother’s who he is because of the stuff he’s experienced. And if you wanna be like him, then you should experience stuff, too.”

Jisung wanted to say that he  _ didn’t  _ want to be like his brother and that he  _ did  _ experience stuff, too, but the thing was, Jimin was right. She usually was, anyway, which was also the only reason Jisung agreed when she'd made him promise that if, when they see each other again, he still didn’t have a boyfriend, she would set him up every day with a friend of hers. Jisung had met some of her friends, they were nice but none of them were his type. “What if we see each other next month?” he asked.

“We won’t,” Jimin pointed out. “Maybe in three years.”

“Oh. That’s a lot of time.”

“It is, Jisung. You better get yourself someone.”

“Why are you more invested in my dating life than I am?”

“Because I want you to be happy,” Jimin said with a sickly, sweet smile. Jisung hated it.

“I can be happy without a boyfriend, you know?” he retorted. He did believe it, really. He was convinced he did, anyway.

“I’d believe that if you didn’t look too wistfully at every couple we see.”

“It’s disgust, Park Jimin-ssi. Not wistfulness.”

“Whatever you say, Jisung. We have a deal.”

“Okay,” sighed Jisung. It was going to be a long three years, he thought. 

 

Thankfully — or  _ not _ , Jisung wasn’t sure yet — it had only been two years later until Jisung saw Jimin again yesterday when they picked her up from the airport, but it had still been long.

Jisung was fucked because last week, when Jimin had called to tell him she was flying to Korea for Younghyun’s engagement party and reminded him about their deal, Jisung and his stupid, caffeine- and sleep-deprived ass had replied with, “Yes, I have a boyfriend now.” He didn’t even remember telling Jimin that until she reminded him the other day. He couldn’t find it in himself to take back what he had said, though, because for some reason, being set up for a date with Kang Hyunggu, Jimin’s friend she probably met at some bar, terrified Jisung more than it even should.

But maybe Jimin thinking Minho was his boyfriend was actually more terrifying— especially now that they were driving back to Minho’s apartment after picking up Jisung’s suit at the tailor.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Lee,” Jisung said while still repeatedly shaking his head. “You shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t have agreed to this. Why did we agree to this?”

“Because,” explained Minho, “you can’t focus on our paper, and I need you to focus on that shit so I could pass and graduate next semester, and you and your cousin won’t see me ever again.” 

They were now pulling up at the parking lot in Minho’s apartment complex. Jisung felt really weird and oddly nervous. It wasn’t his first time coming over to a friend’s house, although, granted, he and Minho  _ weren’t _ exactly friends, but it still felt oddly intimate. “I have a housemate, by the way,” Minho said as they were walking to his door. “He’s pretty loud and annoying, but he shouldn’t be here now. At least, I think.”

“Good to know,” Jisung replied.

When he walked into Minho’s apartment, his first impression was that it was surprisingly clean and almost bare. He wasn’t expecting two cats to come running towards them as soon as Minho opened the door, either, and one of them was even carrying a small Pokemon plushie in its mouth. “Oh,” Jisung said as the other one rubbed its head on his legs. “Hey, kitty.”

“Oh, look, Doongie’s head-bunting you,” Minho said. 

“Doongie what?”

“She’s marking you.”

Jisung jumped away from the cat immediately. “What the fuck?”

Laughing, Minho bent down to pick the cat — Doongie, Jisung thought was the name — up, which Jisung thought was pretty cute and awfully fond, and it made something in his stomach feel weird. “It means she likes you. I think,” Minho explained. “She doesn’t even like Changbin. Although I don’t think Soonie likes him, either.”

“How do you even know which one is which?” Jisung asked, and Minho looked at him like he just asked the dumbest question ever. In Jisung’s defense, though, both cats had orange fur, and it wasn’t like they had distinct  _ meows _ , or something. “They look alike, Lee.”

“No, they don’t,” Minho said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world and Jisung should have realized it. He rolled his eyes at him before turning to his cat. “We don’t like him anymore, right, Doongie?”

“We’ve never liked each other, anyway,” Jisung couldn’t help but whisper. 

“That’s not true,” said Minho. “We weren’t friends, is all.”

“Yeah, because we didn’t like each other.”

“Well, if you put it that way...” the older said, ending with a shrug.

Jisung watched as Minho made his way across the living room, now carrying both cats in his arms. He placed them down beside two empty steel bowls. “Changbin didn’t feed you again, did he?” Minho cooed. The cats meowed back, like they actually understood what he said. Jisung was fascinated by the scene (not by Minho). “Don’t worry, Soonie, Minho’s here. Minho won’t let you be hungry.”

There was something about watching Lee Minho pacing barefoot in  _ his  _ apartment, feeding and cooing at his cats that Jisung had no idea he even had, that made the younger male feel more than slightly uncomfortable. He felt like he was invading Minho’s privacy. It wasn’t something he enjoyed feeling, and yet he couldn't help  but stare and watch and think of how  _ awfully _ fond and domestic it was.

Since that was something Jisung really didn't want to think of, he cleared his throat. “So, uh, what now?”

“Oh, right.” Minho finally looked up from his cats to meet Jisung's eyes. “I’m gonna go shower first, then I’ll go get changed and we can drive back to your place. Make yourself comfortable, I guess,” he added before disappearing to where Jisung assumed the bathroom was, leaving the younger sitting, ironically, uncomfortably on the couch.

It wasn’t until at least half an hour had passed that Minho came out of the bathroom— not that Jisung actually saw him come out of the bathroom; he only knew because Minho announced he was going to get changed and Jisung should wait some more. As if he had a choice by now.

While contemplating whether he should turn the TV on as he waited for Minho, the front door burst open. “I forgot to feed his cats!” the person who walked in exclaimed. He was short, maybe just a little shorter than Jisung himself; he had a pointed chin and, as of the moment, he wore a rather worried expression on his face; he was also carrying a bag of groceries. He didn’t seem to notice the stranger sitting on the couch. “Hyung, are you home? I’m sorry I forgot to feed Soongie!” he shouted.

“I told you, Changbin, it’s Soonie!” Minho screamed from inside his bedroom. 

“That’s what I said. Soonie and Doongie. Did you— oh, my god! Who— what— who are you?” The person, Changbin, jumped and almost dropped his grocery bag when he finally noticed Jisung sitting on the couch. Jisung assumed this was the housemate Minho was talking about.

“Hi,” Jisung greeted awkwardly. 

“Wait, I know you.” Changbin squinted at him (rather exaggeratedly, if Jisung were asked). “Aren’t you that kid who hated Minho-hyung in high school?”

“Did we go to school together, too?”

“No. Hyung  just talks about you a lot.”

“Oh.” Why Minho would talk to his housemate about him, Jisung didn’t know. He was a little curious, though. “Is it good or bad?” he asked.

“Mostly good.”

“Oh.” Jisung didn't really know what to do with that information. He also didn’t know why it made him smile. “Okay.” This day was weird and he knew it was only going to get weirder.

“What are you doing here, anyway?” Changbin asked. He was now sitting down beside Jisung, opening a bag of chips he pulled out from his grocery bag. He offered some to Jisung, as if they had done this so many times before. 

“Well—,” Jisung started, but was immediately cut off by Minho, who'd just walked back into the living room with his cats following by his feet.

“We’re pretend-dating for tonight,” Minho said matter-of-factly, like it was the most normal thing he could ever say; like walking out of his room suddenly clad up in an elegant black suit, looking handsome as hell (not that Jisung found him handsome), while declaring he was going to pretend to be someone’s boyfriend for a night, was a normal occurrence in this household.

Changbin looked at Minho incredulously, then at Jisung, then at Minho again. “You’re doing favors just like that now?” he asked. “Who are you and what did you do to my best friend?”

Jisung didn’t want to think about how what Changbin said was actually true and, again, kind of weird; he and Minho weren’t even on speaking terms, and Jisung was convinced they even hated, or at least had a mutual disliking for, each other.

Minho only sighed and rolled his eyes. “We’re not best friends,” he told Changbin. “Let’s go, Han.”

“Okay.” Jisung stood up from the couch and followed Minho to the door. “Bye, I guess,” he said to Changbin.

“Bye,” Minho said, too. “Don’t wait up for me.”

“I can’t believe you’re doing this, hyung— but actually, if I think about it, maybe I can believe it—.” Fortunately, Changbin didn’t get to finish what he was going to say because Minho already slammed the door shut, and he and Jisung made their way silently back to his car.

 

“Lee Minho-ssi?” Seungmin stared wide eyed at Jisung’s pretend-boyfriend as soon as he'd opened the door to their house. “I mean,  _ hi. _ "

Since going back to his own house meant that Jisung would have to explain why a pretty boy dressed up in a suit drove him home, he'd asked Seungmin if he could just get ready at his place instead, so they could all go together. He'd forgotten to tell Seungmin about his pretend-dating situation, though.

“Minho-hyubg? Where?” Hyunjin’s voice held a little too much excitement when he asked from behind his own (real) boyfriend. He smiled widely at Minho as soon as he saw him. “Hyung! What are you doing here?” He seemed like the only one who wasn’t weirded out by the situation.

Minho smiled back at Hyunjin and Seungmin and gave them a little bow before following Jisung inside. “Hey, Hyunjin,” he greeted, “and Kim Seungmin-ssi, right?” Seungmin nodded. “Yeah. I’m pretending to be Han's boyfriend for tonight.”

Hearing it said out loud really made Jisung cringe. It also made his heart race a bit, which he completely didn’t understand why so he wasn’t going tell anyone about that.

“Cool!” Hyunjin said. Jisung wanted to hit him.

“Wait, what?” Seungmin asked, confused and disbelieving. Maybe there was a reason why Seungmin was Jisung’s  _ bestest  _ friend, after all. “What’s going on?”

Hyunjin was really not weirded out, though; he even seemed excited, Jisung thought. Then again, Hyunjin had always had a slight crush on Minho ever since high school. “It’s  _ admiration _ , Jisung,” Hyunjin would always say whenever he and Felix teased him. He and Minho were part of the same dance troupe for a year along with Felix, back in their first year of high school, which was also Minho’s last year. Minho still dropped by frequently even when he'd already graduated, too, and that was how he got on friendly terms with two of Jisung’s closest friends (nor that Jisung was keeping tabs on Minho, or anything).

Jisung, though, still didn’t like the guy despite them having the same friends. He figured he didn’t really have to be friendly with all of his friends’ other friends, but he also couldn’t impose his own preferences and feelings on them, either.  _ Compromise was key, _ as Seungmin had always told him.

“I’m confused,” continued Seungmin, his brows furrowed. “But Jisung has to get dressed.” With that, he took Jisung’s hand and dragged him upstairs to his bedroom. “What’s going on?” Seungmin asked once they were inside his bedroom and out of earshot. 

Jisung explained what had happened earlier at the cafe. Thankfully, he didn’t really have much explaining to do since Seungmin already knew of Jisung’s predicament, and because the two of them (and their older brothers) practically grew up together, Seungmin also knew Jimin. Seungmin was the person who understood Jisung’s situation the most, although granted, he was also the most vocally judgemental about it, but Jisung knew by now that Seungmin only meant well (most of the time, anyway).

“I’m gonna go shower,” Jisung announced after telling Seungmin everything. He already had his own toiletries in his best friend’s bathroom, and vice versa.

Jimin had once made a joke about how Jisung and Seungmin should just end up together, but Hyunjin, who was with them that time, had choked on his drink and accidentally blurted that he and Seungmin had actually been dating for a few months already. But even if that weren't the case, frankly, Jisung and Seungmin both knew they would probably end up trying to kill each other if they became anything more than friends.

 

“He looks good, though.” Seungmin said about Minho as he was helping Jisung to finally style his hair. He and Hyunjin were already dressed up in their own navy blue and white suits, respectively, while Jisung’s suit was also black like Minho's.

“He does,” agreed Jisung. “He always does.”

Seungmin nodded slowly. “Right,” he said. “Where’s your tie?” Jisung just stared in confusion. His  _ what _ ? “Tie, Jisung. Necktie. You know? That thing you wear around your—.”

“Yes, Seungmin, I know what a necktie is, but I don’t have one.” Was he  _ supposed _ to have one?

“How can you  _ not _ have one? Doesn’t it come with the suit?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Here,” Seungmin handed him a black tie from his own closet. “You have to give this back, okay? That’s from Hyunjin.”

“Thanks.”

“Do you know how to put this on?”

“No.”

Seungmin sighed heavily, even rolling his eyes for effect. “What would you do without me, Han Jisung?”

“More stupid stuff?” Jisung suggested as he let his friend put the tie around his neck. “With Felix, probably.”

“That’s true,” Seungmin laughed. “I—”

“Seungminnie!” Hyunjin suddenly called from outside the room. “I need help!”

“Coming!” Seungmin shouted. He turned to Jisung with a  _ maybe _ apologetic smile. “You can figure that out,” he said before leaving Jisung on his own. 

After a while of trying and failing to tie the thing on his own, Jisung contemplated if he should just not wear a tie at all. He looked good without it, anyway, and besides, he might ruin the tie and Seungmin would give him so much shit if that ever happened.

“Hey, Han?” Minho’s head peeped through the doorway of Seungmin’s bedroom, making Jisung jump in surprise. He tried to play it off, but the smirk on Minho’s face made it clear he'd caught it. “Seungmin-ssi told me to check on you. He says we might be running late.”

Jisung scoffed. “Please,” he said. “Younghyun-hyung probably hasn’t even taken a shower yet. Not that you’d know, though.” He was about to pull the untied tie off his shirt’s collar when he felt Minho’s hand on his shoulder, turning him around. “What—?”

“Here,” Minho said, taking both ends of the tie still hanging around Jisung’s neck. “This is how you do it.” He carefully, meticulously knotted the tie around Jisung's.

Jisung had to fight the urge to roll his eyes;  it had already become second instinct whenever the other did anything Jisung couldn’t. Of course, Minho knew how to tie a tie.  _ Minho knew how to do everything. _

What was definitely  _ not _ second instinct, though, was how Jisung's heart suddenly started racing a little too fast, and how his face suddenly felt a little too warm, and how his body almost involuntarily shivered when he realized just how close Minho was standing— a little too close for comfort, but Jisung found he didn't exactly mind. The small distance between the two of them might've felt uncomfortable to Jisung but he unexpectedly liked it.

“There,” Minho said, turning away instantly as soon as he finished. 

_ Thank god _ , Jisung thought, breathing heavily. What was wrong with him? 

“Let’s go,” the older said before walking out the room.

But… why was Minho breathing heavily, too?

It took Jisung a few seconds before registering what Minho had just said — because all he could think of was how close they'd been just seconds ago and how Minho seemed flustered, too — and by the time he did, Minho was already outside. “Hey, wait up, Lee!”

 

The program had already started when Jisung and his friends — and  _ boyfriend  _ — arrived at the venue.

The car ride had been slow but not as awkward as Jisung had initially thought, mainly because Hyunjin kept on talking to Minho while Jisung and Seungmin were left in the backseat of Minho’s car.

Now that they were here, though, Seungmin had immediately dragged Hyunjin away with him, probably to go find his brother.

Jisung, on the other hand, wasn’t really in the mood to socialize just yet. He just wanted to hide for a while, to steel himself for all the comparisons he was sure were about to be made between him and Younghyun. He'd already spotted one of his aunts (a particularly nosy one, at that); he'd also spotted one if his dad’s friends, the one who always kept on asking Jisung about his girlfriends and seemed to be in denial that he wasn’t into girls. Thankfully, though, his brother and cousin weren’t anywhere to bee seen, and since the bar on the far right seemed particularly interesting, especially to a newly-adult Jisung, that was where he went (and ordered a few shots, too, probably). 

“Really? You’re drinking?” Minho suddenly asked from behind him. For a while Jisung actually forgot Minho was with them.

Jisung took one more shot before turning around to face him. “Why are you following me?” he asked.

“I’m supposed to be your boyfriend, Han,” explained Minho; he took the shot glass Jisung was just about to bring to his lips and took the shot instead. “I’m not supposed to leave you here getting drunk on you brother’s engagement party.”

“I’m not gonna get drunk, Lee, okay? Stop worrying your ass. We’re not actually boyfriends.”

“Well, they don’t know that, Han, and if you want to—.”

“Minho?” someone said from behind Jisung. He recognized the voice as Jimin’s boyfriend, Chris (or Chan, because only Jimin called him Chris), so he turned around and greeted him. Luckily, Jimin wasn’t with him. “What are you— why are you guys together?” Chan asked.

Maybe it wasn’t all that lucky.

“Chan-hyung!” Jisung chirped. The alcohol was already slightly getting to him. “This is my boyfriend, Lee—I mean,  _ Minho-hyung. _ ” Calling the older by that made Jisung cringe, but he found that he actually liked how natural it sounded rolling off his tongue.

Minho waved him off, though. “Save it, Han,” he said, “Chan-hyung and I are friends.”

“What?” Jisung’s brows shot up. “Chan-hyung, you can’t tell her!”

“Tell  _ who _ what?” Jimin suddenly showed up behind Chan. “Hi, Minho-ssi! You clean up well.”

“Thanks,” said Minho. “You, too. Chan-hyung, too, surprisingly.”

“You guys know each other?” Jisung heard Jimin say. He shut out the rest of the conversation, though. He felt weird enough that Chan and Minho — and now Jimin, too — all know each other. The night was already really tiring, and they hadn’t even talked to Younghyun yet. Jisung just wanted to get out, and he would've done so if he hadn’t slipped. 

"Hey— careful," Minho said, catching Jisung before the latter could actually fall. He turned to the others as he supported a tipy Jisung by his side. “Sorry. He’s a lightweight,”

“I know, right?” Jimin replied. “I had to drag him outside a bar once back in Canada.”

Minho let out a laugh. “It’s always fun watching him during parties, even back in high school.”

“Oh, you go way back?” Chan teased. He was looking at Jisung now, trying not to laugh.

It was Minho who answered, though. “Yes, hyung,” he said. “We _ go way back. _ Enough about us, though, what about you two?” And Jisung said a silent thanks to Minho for steering the topic away from their fake relationship.

After a while of mostly Jimin and Minho talking, the host finally called the guests’ attention. Younghyun and his fiancee were about to go on stage and sing a duet and give their speeches, or something like that.

Jisung spotted Seungmin and Hyunjin sitting at a nearby table, so he bid Chan and Jimin goodbye before marching towards his friends with Minho at his side. Once he sat down, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.

**_Bangbaabaaajababababa:_ ** _ u have shit to explain #LOL _

**_Jisung:_ ** _ hashtags dont work on text, hyung.  _

**_Bangbaabaaajababababa:_ ** _ oh.  _

**_Bangbaabaaajababababa:_ ** _ anyway you got some shit to explain _

**_Bangbaabaaajababababa:_ ** _ #WhatAMess _

_ What a mess, indeed,  _ Jisung thought to himself as he sat through his brother’s long story of how he and his fiancée met during college but didn’t get together until after college. It was something Jisung had already heard lots of times, though, and he wasn’t really keen on hearing it one more time. Not that it wasn’t a cute love story, it was just palling to hear over and over again, but at least his friends and Minho seemed like they were enjoying it. “That’s cute,” Jisung even heard Hyunjin say at one point. Half an hour later and Younghyun was wrapping up their speech so they could all finally eat. 

“What if your parents ask you stuff about each other?” Seungmin asked as they were eating.

“Don’t worry about that,” Jisung said. “They probably won’t.”

“Younghyun-hyung  _ would _ , though,” Hyunjin pointed out. He was right, Jisung knew; Younghyun would definitely ask a lot of stuff. It didn’t worry him much, though.

Jisung hated it, but he knew an awful lot about Lee Minho. It wasn’t as if he wanted to know that much about Minho, either; it just happened that when Jisung entered high school, Lee Minho was  _ the  _ most popular senior; everyone knew who he was and everyone talked about him, so naturally, Jisung learned a lot about the guy from all the talk around him. 

It was unfair, too, Jisung had thought, because aside from being popular, Lee Minho was also smart, funny, interesting, a cat-person, and damn attractive. To top it all off, Lee Minho was admitted to the university without having to take the CSAT— just like Younghyun himself. And maybe that was why Jisung felt so bitter and resentful towards Lee Minho. That, and the fact that Minho always beat him in all the competitions he'd joined during his first year in high school. And maybe also the fact that none of his friends understood  _ exactly why  _ he didn’t like Minho.

“Although,” Hyunjin continued, “Wonpil-hyung didn’t really ask me anything when Seungminnie first introduced me as his boyfriend.”

“That’s because he already knew you before,” Jisung said. “He and Younghyun-hyung also used to tease you guys a lot.”

“Yeah,” Seungmin agreed. “I _hated_ it. I _absolutely_ _hated_ it.”

Jisung laughed at this, causing him to choke on his rice. Minho immediately handed him a glass of water. “Thanks,” Jisung said after drinking, and that was when he noticed there was barely any food on Minho’s plate. “Why aren’t you eating?” he asked.

“I don’t eat after 8 p.m.,” the older answered simply.

“What? How can you not eat dinner?” he exclaimed, before exchanging their plates. “Eat, or I’m telling Changbin-ssi Doongie destroyed his plushie.”

“That was Soonie, not Doongie. And how do you even know that was Changbin’s?” asked Minho. He did start eating, though, so Jisung at least felt slightly triumphant.

“You don’t like Pokemon,” Jisung answered. “You were the only person I knew who wasn’t playing Pokemon Go back in high school.”

“How do you even remember that?” Seungmin asked.

Jisung wasn’t sure, either. He also wasn’t sure why his face started feeling warm and his stomach started feeling weird again. Maybe he should eat, too. He was about to call on a waiter, but then he saw his brother making his way towards their table. 

“Jisungie!” Younghyun clapped his back. “Thought you were gonna be late? Hi, Seungminnie, Hyunjinnie, and?” he turned to Minho.

Minho extended out his hand. “Lee Minho,” he introduced himself. “Jisung’s boyfriend.” Jisung didn’t know why, but hearing Minho call him by his first name for what seemed like the first time made him  _ feel things. _

“Jisung has a boyfriend?” Younghyun shouted, making everyone seated at the tables near theirs turn their heads towards them. “Why did no one tell me?”

“ _ This _ is why no one told you,” Jisung hissed through gritted teeth, hiding his reddening face in his hands.

His brother didn’t hear him, though, and only continued asking Minho questions. “Where did you guys meet? How long have you been together? Did you go to school together? Where do you study?” Jisung didn’t want to sit through this interrogation, so he excused himself to go to the bathroom, leaving Minho to make stuff up on his own; Seungmin caught up to him halfway to the bathroom. At least, Hyunjin was left there to support Minho and his lies.

“I should’ve just made Felix pretend to be my boyfriend,” Jisung told Seungmin as they were washing their hands. “That would’ve been easier.”

Seungmin disagreed, though. “That’d be a disaster,” he said with a laugh. “You both would’ve messed things up as soon as you saw Jimin-noona.”

“Point taken.”

“You know,” Seungmin continued. “Minho-ssi probably won't  even see your family again. You can just tell them you guys  _ broke up _ and then you’re good.”

Jisung sighed. “Thanks,” he said to Seungmin. “You’re always the sensible one.”

“Someone has to be.”

That was the plan now. Jisung would wait a week, or maybe until Jimin was back in Canada, and he would tell everyone that he and Minho had broken up because, hey, stuff like that happened a lot. But things didn’t always go as planned— and  _ that  _ happened a lot, as well.

 

It wasn’t until the last day of finals week that Jisung met up with Minho again for their term paper. Jisung was already done with all of his exams and requirements by then; he didn’t feel particularly good about them, like Seungmin and Hyunjin  _ probably _ did, but he also didn’t feel like he did poorly, like Felix  _ swore _ he did. For what it’s worth, at least Jisung knew he had an awesome support system, whatever might happen. Also, he could now focus on finishing up their term paper; although it was mostly done, there were a few things left that he and Minho needed to edit and then they needed to work on their conclusion.

Jisung felt a little nervous and awkward about seeing Minho again. It had been a week since his brother’s engagement party, and that was the last time he'd seen Minho, too. It wasn’t unpleasant; Minho had been nice to Jisung the whole time. Minho was also nice to Jimin, to Younghyun and his fiancee, to Jisung’s parents, and to Jisung’s other relatives who'd come up to their table after Younghyun  _ accidentally _ announced to everyone that Jisung had a boyfriend. Actually, Minho was just generally nice, and it just really showed that night that it even made Jisung rethink about why he used to resent Minho  _ that  _ much back then.

Jisung had also been keeping in touch with Minho the past week. Throughout that week, he found himself in conversations with Minho that weren’t about their paper anymore. The two of them talked even late into the early hours of morning, keeping each other company as they pulled all nighters for their requirements and studied for their exams. It even got to the point where they both forgot they were supposed to be working on a paper and weren’t just friends chatting with each other. Honestly, if Minho hadn’t brought the topic back up, Jisung would've probably totally forgotten about it and they wouldn’t have decided to meet this Friday.

Jisung let Minho decide when and where they were supposed to meet that time, since he figured the older would be a lot busier because he was in his last year of college, and Minho had asked to meet at the cafe again. This time, though, Minho told Jisung he was going to be with his friends because they were all  _ conveniently _ finishing up papers so they could finally officially end their semesters. Jisung agreed to the arrangement, and, honestly, he was a bit jealous because all of his friends had already officially ended  _ their _ semesters, nd right now, Seungmin and Hyunjin were out of town, and Felix was out with his roommate, Jeongin, too.

The cafe was slightly busier this time, Jisung noticed. There were more people tonight, too, although it was still relatively quiet. He immediately found Minho seated on the farthest table to the left, waving and smiling at him, making him avert his eyes even when he was walking towards the older. “Hey,  _ Lee, _ ” he greeted Minho. There were three other people with Minho but Jisung knew only one of them. “Hi, Chris-hyung,” he said to Chan.

“Oh,” one of the other guys, the one with the bigger built sitting beside Minho, said. “I thought only your girlfriend calls you Chris.”

“Yeah,” Chan laughed. “Woojin, meet my beautiful girlfriend, Han Jisung.”

The guy, whose name was probably Woojin, chuckled. “She looks a bit different from what I’ve seen in pictures,” he said to Chan. “I’m Woojin, by the way,” he said to Jisung with a friendly smile.

The other guy with them, Jisung realized, was Minho’s housemate, Changbin, if he recalled the name correctly. Jisung gave him a small bow when they made eye contact before sitting down beside Minho and bringing out his laptop. Minho then pushed a slice of cheesecake towards him, just like last time. “Here,” Minho whispered; it seemed to Jisung like he tried to do it as discreetly as possible. Unfortunately, Changbin still caught the action.

“Didn’t know you guys are still pretend-dating until now,” Changbin teased. “Thought it was just for last Friday.”

“Wait, what?” Woojin exclaimed, almost spilling his drink. “Did you ditch me last Friday so you could go pretend to be someone’s boyfriend?”

Minho rolled his eyes. “I did  _ not _ ditch you,” he retorted. “I didn’t even say I was going with you.” 

“That’s because we never need to confirm,” Woojin said in disbelief. “Oh, my god, you and Chan.”

“For the record,” Chan noted, “my relationship is actually real.”

“Minho-hyung’s relationship seems real enough, if you ask me,” Changbin muttered, making Jisung blush involuntarily. “He bought him cheesecake. Hyung's never even bought me anything! And we live together!”

“That’s because you don’t feed my cats,” said Minho. “And you eat my cereals.”

“Your cats play with my Munchlax plushies! And you don’t even eat breakfast cereals.”

“I eat my cereals at midnight, you—.”

“You guys are scaring the kid,” Woojin finally interrupted. Jisung usually didn’t like being called a kid, but he appreciated Woojin shutting the two up.

Thankfully Minho finally started talking about the paper, because Jisung just really wanted to finish it so he could go home and sleep and wait for his friends to send photos in their group chat, complete with captions saying they wished Jisung were there too. And so they worked on it, sharing ideas about how they could make it more interesting and the likes.

Jisung found that Minho was really easy to talk to and to get along with, he also found Minho’s smile really pretty, and it just made him feel conflicted because he was supposed to not even like this person beside him. He tried not to dwell on it too much, though, which was easy since there wasn’t really much time left to think about anything else but their nearing deadline.

A few more paragraphs and a page of sources later and Minho was finally emailing their professor the term paper. Jisung’s semester was finally over! When he looked around, though, the rest of the group already had their laptops closed and were already chatting idly, just waiting for him and Minho to finally finish their work. Once they were all done with their food and drinks — Jisung’s, care of Minho — they all finally stood up and made for the exit.

“By the way, we’re going out tonight,” Chan told Jisung as they walked out of the cafe. “You wanna come?”

“You’re inviting him?” Changbin asked. Chan just shrugged in response. “And you’re okay with this?” he asked Minho, who just shrugged, too.

“Does Jimin-noona know you’re going out?” Jisung asked.

“Yeah,” Chan replied. “She’ll be there, actually.”

“Who’s Jimin?” asked Woojin.

“Chan-hyung’s girlfriend,” answered Minho.

“I thought your girlfriend’s name was Jamie?” Changbin asked, confused. 

“That’s her english name,” Chan explained, saying they called each other by their english names because they met abroad. It was something Jisung already knew, though, so he let himself lag behind Chan and his friends. 

He didn’t notice Minho was walking beside him, too, until after a few minutes, and he couldn’t tell if Minho was purposely lagging behind, and he also couldn’t tell why Minho walking close beside him made his heart beat faster. “You should come,” Minho told him. “It’ll be fun.” 

Jisung considered. None of his friends were in the city, anyway, so he figured he didn’t really have anything better to do. Besides, maybe he actually enjoyed spending time with Minho (and his friends, too, but mostly Minho). “Sure,” he finally said. Of course, he failed to realize that Jimin being there, too, meant that he and Minho had to pretend being boyfriends again.

Minho was quick to act, though; as soon as they arrived at the bar and saw Jimin waiting outside, he instantly grabbed Jisung’s hand and pulled him a little closer. Although Jisung didn’t immediately realize what was happening, he let Minho lace their fingers together without question, and that was how they entered the bar: hand in hand, smiling, walking close to each other, even though Jisung was admittedly a little scared that someone he knew might be there and see them.

Woojin immediately got them a table near the side, not too close to the center where most of the people were dancing, but also not too far in case anyone wanted to go dancing later. Once they were seated, people started coming by their table to greet Minho and some of his friends, some people greeted Jisung, too, but really most of them just knew Minho and Chan.

_ Of course _ , Jisung thought,  _ Minho’s still popular in college _ . But, surprisingly, there was no resentment anymore. Jisung felt like he was just stating a fact. Maybe because he got to spend some time with Minho, too, and he now understood why people liked him so much. And maybe also because Minho was still holding his hand even when they were already seated and served some drinks. 

All throughout the night, Minho never let go of Jisung’s hand, even when they'd already drunk several bottles of soju and some cups of cocktail and mixed drinks, even when Jimin and Chan had already gone to the dance floor, even when Woojin had already gone to the bar and was talking to some girls, even when Changbin had already gone to another table to mingle with his other friends, even when Jisung was already drunk and trying to sober up and he was sure Minho was at least tipsy, too.

Jisung was now alone with Minho at their table, yet somehow they were still trying to pretend they were dating, and he wasn’t sure why but he definitely wasn’t complaining, either.

“Lee Minho-ssi!” Jisung shouted in the older’s ear. He finally let go of Minho’s hand so he could wrap an arm around Minho’s waist, too drunk to care if he was invading anyone’s personal space— or if the two of them weren’t even friends with each other to begin with. “Am I drunk?” Jisung slurred. 

“What?” Minho asked. His furrowed brows made Jisung want to reach out and run his thumbs across them. And maybe run his thumbs across Minho’s cheekbones, too. Maybe he was really going to do it if Minho hadn't spoken  again. “Jisungie?”

“My cheeks get red when I’m drunk,” Jisung shouted, even though his cheeks were definitely redder than they'd usually be when he was drunk, probably because Minho called him by his first name again.

Minho smiled at him. “Cute,” he said. It made Jisung’s insides feel funny. 

He playfully pushed Minho away. “Fuck off,” he said, but his arm immediately found its way back around Minho’s waist.

After a few minutes of just sitting in the same position, Minho cleared his throat and spoke. “I’ll be your wingman for tonight,” he suddenly announced. He really didn’t have to put his arm around Jisung’s shoulders and make the younger’s stomach feel weird (but not in a bad way), but he did, anyway. “Just look around, Han—.”

“Hey, I thought we were on first name basis?” Jisung whined. “You’re unfair.”

“What?”

“You called me Jisung earlier.”

“Oh. Then, look around,  _ Jisungie _ ,” Minho enunciated the name carefully, sending butterflies to the younger’s stomach. “Just pick anyone who’s looking back at you. I swear I’m the best wingman, I’ll get you a real boyfriend tonight.”

Jisung didn’t even want a real boyfriend, but he did as the older said. He looked around and saw some people looking at their direction.

“Or they probably just wanna bang, if we’re being real,” Minho added, but Jisung was quick to point out that the people Minho was talking about were all actually looking at Minho. “Oh,” said the older. “Are  _ you _ a good wingman?” Jisung shook his head. “Then, I guess we’re stuck here with each other,” Minho said with a laugh. It wasn’t as if Jisung minded, anyway.

As it got later into the night, Jisung and Minho just sat there and talked, the bottles of alcohol on their table forgotten. They mostly talked about high school; Jisung finally told Minho why he used to dislike him so much, and Minho told Jisung how he'd always wanted to be friends since their friend groups were also somehow associated with each other. Since they weren’t really drinking anymore, too, they'd also started sobering up, which made their conversation a lot more serious than their previous drunken slurs and loud laughter. Minho actually seemed completely sober already, but Jisung still felt dizzy. It was okay, though; Minho was taking care of him and he never once left Jisung’s side that night.

Although their conversations now  _ were _ more serious, somehow, some time during the night, they'd started talking about the silly topic of high school crushes. Jisung then told Minho about that huge crush he'd once had on someone from the basketball varsity team, and on one of the choir members, and on one of his classmates during his senior year, but then Jisung noticed that Minho didn’t really look like he enjoyed listening to Jisung’s stories about his high school crushes. If Jisung were to be honest, he didn’t particularly like talking about them either; none of them seemed interesting enough to Jisung, anyway, which was why he'd never really thought of asking any of them out.

_ Utmost truth  _ be told, Jisung had only ever found one person interesting during high school, although he'd also spent the entire time irrationally disliking said person, and that person was sitting beside him right now, holding his hand in pretense even when there's no one around to pretend for anymore— but Jisung was at least sober enough to stop himself from telling Minho all about that. 

“What about you, though?” he asked instead. “Was there anyone cool before I came in?”

Minho shrugged. “I guess,” he said. “I mean, I was there two years before you, right?” He chuckled when Jisung only pouted at him in return; that wasn’t what Jisung wanted to hear.

“You’re cute when you do that, you know?” Minho suddenly told him; that wasn't what Jisung wanted to hear, either, but he couldn't say he didn't like it. “I’ve always found you cute.”

Jisung just stared back at Minho, wide-eyed. He was sure it was just the alcohol making him hear and imagine things, because suddenly Minho’s thumbs were caressing his cheeks and he was leaning in. “I’ve always wanted to do this, too,” Minho whispered before closing the gap between them. 

Minho’s lips were soft, even softer than Jisung had imagined— and he wasn’t even aware he used to imagine how Minho’s lips would feel against his until now that he'd actually kissed Minho. His lips also tasted a bit of the alcohol they drank earlier that night, and Jisung felt like he was going to get intoxicated all over again as they quickly became a mess of lips and tongues and fingers running through and pulling on each other’s hair, and just like that, Jisung was a goner. He didn’t know how long they made out, or who pulled away first, but he was sure he wanted to kiss Minho again.

 

The next day, Jisung woke up in his bed with a bad case of hangover and no idea how he even got back home.

 

***

The next semester came too soon. It seemed to Jisung like he just slept for a night and when he woke up, he needed to go to school again. In reality, it had actually been two months. Still, Jisung felt like those two months of rest weren’t enough compared to the four that were spent doing so much work, but at least those two short months of summer vacation were spent well.

During that time, Jisung had spent a whole weekend at the beach with his friends, had gone with his brother to his fiancée’s hometown for a week, had gone to an amusement park with Felix and his roommate Jeongin, had spent another weekend at the beach but with his family,  _ and _ had grown a lot closer with Minho.

Even though he and Minho didn’t get to see each other at all during vacation, they'd still kept in contact. Jisung had also kept in contact with Minho’s friends through social media and had somehow been integrated into their friend group. It was weird, though, Jisung thought, how easily and naturally he and Minho had gotten along. Maybe if he weren’t busy trying to find things to hate about Minho back in high school, they would've been really good friends.

There was something that bothered Jisung, though.

Something happened on the night he went out with Minho and his friends, but he wasn’t sure if it  _ actually _ ,  _ really _ happened, or if he was just too drunk that night that he'd hallucinated making out with Minho until Changbin had to interrupt them because they needed to go home. He wasn’t even sure why it bothered him so much since kisses didn’t really mean much to him. And even if it  _ did _ actually happen, they were both pretty buzzed that night and it was probably just the alcohol acting up. He shouldn’t have been thinking about it, anyway. Minho had never brought it up, either, so clearly it meant nothing to him, too. Jisung just hoped it wouldn’t make things awkward when they see each other again.

Luckily, it didn’t, especially because when Jisung got to his classroom for the physics lecture series he'd enlisted in together with Felix, Minho was there, sitting near the back of the room, smiling at the two younger males as they made their way to sit beside him. 

“Hyung!" Jisung greeted. "You didn’t tell me you had this class, too,” he whined at Minho, who just replied with a nonchalant shrug.

“I didn’t have to,” answered Minho. That was true, but considering the amount of time they had spent talking to each other during vacation, Jisung felt like Minho should’ve at least told him. He was about to say so, but their professor suddenly — surprisingly — arrived.

Felix, who sat beside Jisung, let out a groan. “I didn’t think he’d come on the first day,” he whispered to Jisung.

“I know,” Jisung answered with a sigh. “I thought we could go eat lunch with Seungmin and Hyunjin.”

“You wanna just go after class? I’ll tell them.”

“Sure, of course,” Jisung nodded enthusiastically, not because Felix usually paid for their meals whenever they ate out, but because he genuinely liked spending time with him. He was going to ask Minho if he wanted to come too, but Minho was already talking to the girl with milky white skin and cute cheeks in the other seat beside him.

A few weeks into the semester and Jisung was starting to think enlisting in this physics class was the saddest decision he'd ever made in his entire college career. He and Felix didn’t get to eat lunch until late into the afternoon because the class fell on lunchtime, and they rarely got to spend time with Seungmin and Hyunjin because of their mismatching schedules. The only upside was Jisung got to spend time with Felix before, during, and after their class.

An added plus was that he got to see Minho, too; although they barely talked in person during class hours, Minho would sometimes message him something stupid and Jisung would have to keep himself from laughing out loud.

Aside from Minho and Felix, Jisung found himself spending a lot of his time with Minho’s friends, too. On the first day of class, Minho had invited Jisung and Felix to eat lunch with him and his friends. Jisung had thought it would only be a one-time thing but now it was quickly becoming routine. Every time they had their physics lecture, Minho’s friends would already be waiting at the lobby and Jisung and Felix always found themselves hanging out with the group. Although all of Minho’s friends were great, Jisung got along well with Changbin the most. They had almost the same taste in music and had some common interests, too, but mainly Jisung thought they really bonded over the fact that they both had close to no idea which of Minho’s cats is which.

It wasn’t always just Jisung who hung out with Minho’s friends, though; sometimes Minho hung out with Jisung and his friends, too. It was a pretty seamless transition, since Minho was already friends with Hyunjin and Felix. Minho and Seungmin quickly got along, too; whenever the five of them hung out, the two of them were usually the ones who kept Jisung and Felix from doing anything too stupid and from dragging Hyunjin along into their mess.

Still, Minho and Seungmin weren’t able to keep Jisung and Felix from going to the store to buy ingredients for the cake they wanted to bake for their joint birthday celebration.

“Do you even know how to bake?” Seungmin asked once they'd brought everything Jisung and Felix bought inside Jisung’s kitchen.  “I don’t think I want you to bake my birthday cake.”

“It’s not  _ your  _ birthday cake, Seungminnie, it’s  _ our _ birthday cake,” Jisung pointed out. “Yours and mine and Felix’s. And Felix and I are gonna bake it for you.”

“Have you even tried baking yet?”

“No. But there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube.”

“Have  _ you  _ tired baking, Felix?” Hyunjin, who was for some reason checking the inside of the oven, asked.

“I’ve helped my mom bake cookies before,” answered Felix enthusiastically; he and Jisung seemed like the only ones excited about this. “That’s why we’re baking cookies, too! Seungmin knows how to bake cookies, right?”

Now that got Hyunjin excited, too. “He does!” he replied with a big smile. “Seungminnie makes the best cookies!”

Seungmin sighed in resignation. Even though he seemed to be against the idea, Jisung knew his best friend couldn’t ever resist the three of them, so he felt the need to reassure him. “Hey, don’t worry,” Jisung told him, complete with an exaggerated eyeroll. “We’re not gonna burn the house down, okay? Besides, Minho-hyung knows how to bake.”

“What does Minho-hyung have to do with this?” asked Seungmin.

“Oh. He was with us at the store when you and Hyunjin left for class. He said he’s coming over to help, too.”

“Oh," Seungmin let out, brows furrowed as he glanced at Jisung, before adding, "I guess that’s good. Something’s at least gonna turn out edible later.”

Minho arrived just as Seungmin and Hyunjin were in the middle of making cookie dough while Jisung and Felix watched.

“I thought you guys were gonna bake,” he told Jisung and Felix. “Why are they doing all the work?”

“We’re baking a cake,” answered Felix. “They’re baking cookies.”

“Then why am I here again?”

“Because Jisung wants you here.”

“Hey, you said you wanted to come over!” Jisung butted in.

“I did?” Minho asked him. “I don’t remember saying that.”

“Oh, were you busy or something, hyung?” Felix worried. “You don’t have to help us if you don’t—”

“No, no,” the older interrupted. Jisung gave him a warning look,  _ Don’t make Felix upset _ , he mouthed. “I was kidding. I wanna help you.”

“Oh. Great!”

The three spent the next twenty more minutes or so watching Seungmin and Hyunjin make their cookies. It looked intimate, Jisung thought, but not to the point that it made him uncomfortable. They just looked cute and domestic, like this was something they regularly did together— and maybe it really was what couples did; Jisung had definitely seen Younghyun and his fiancée in their kitchen doing the same more than twice.

“I feel like I’m watching a movie,” Minho whispered.

“They’re cute, aren’t they?” Felix said with a sigh. “I want something like that someday, too.”

“Don’t worry, Felix,” Jisung said, patting his friend’s back. “Later it’ll be our turn to look cute and shit.”

“Pretty sure that’s not what he meant, Jisung,” Minho pointed out. Jisung was about to reply when Hyunjin’s phone started ringing.

“Hey, Jeongin,” Jisung heard him say. He couldn’t hear what Jeongin was actually saying, of course, just Hyunjin saying, “Okay.” “Yeah.” “We’re going there now.”

“What’s wrong?" inquired Felix.

“Jeongin’s at the neighborhood next to this one,” answered Hyunjin.

“What’s he doing there?” Jisung asked.

“He got lost because your directions weren’t clear,” Seungmin said sternly.  “Hyunjinnie and I are gonna pick him up. ”

“Hey, can I come?” Felix asked, even though they were supposed to bake cake. “We need to pick up the food, too.”

“Okay, let’s go,” Hyunjin called. “Just don’t forget to put the tray in the oven, and please don’t burn your house down, Jisung.”

The three left Jisung and Minho to keep watch on the cookies— and to bake the cake.

“Woojin-hyung and the rest are coming, too, right?” Jisung asked Minho.

“Yeah,” the older answered. "I told them to bring food."

"Great!" Jisung clapped his hands. "Let's bake this cake!"

Minho ended up making the cake batter on his own. Jisung just watched and talked and made a lot of mess. Both their clothes were white with flour, and it was all Jisung’s fault. At least, Minho didn’t get mad; he even seemed happy. Minho was laughing and smiling most of the time even though he was doing all the work, which in turn made Jisung happy, too.

Jisung really liked making Minho laugh.

“Minho!” It was Younghyun. He and his friends had just arrived. “How’ve you been?” Sometimes Jisung forgot that his brother and Minho knew each other. “I hope Jisung here wasn’t too much of a pain to handle,” Younghyun added.

Minho just laughed and let Younghyun clap him on the back. “I’ve been good, hyung,” he said. “And yeah, taking care of Jisung’s quite a chore, but don’t worry.” He turned to look at Jisung and gave him a smile. “I enjoy doing it.”

Jisung looked away; he didn’t think he could look at Minho smiling at him like that without embarrassing himself. He didn’t have to embarrass himself, though, his brother was already doing a stellar job at that.

“I’ll introduce you to my friends,” Younghyun said to Minho. He pointed at each of the guys he was with, “This is Sungjin-hyung, Jae-hyung, Wonpil—he’s Seungmin’s brother, you know that, right? And this here is Dowoon.” Younghyun then gestured at Minho and turned to his friends, “This is Minho, Jisung’s boyfriend.”

_ Fuck. _

Jisung forgot they were pretending to be boyfriends when Minho had met Younghyun. He was supposed to come up with some fake break up story to tell his family, but he forgot all about that, too.  The slight look of surprise on Minho’s face wasn’t missed, either; clearly he had forgotten all about it, too.

“Sorry,” Jisung said once Younghyun and his group were out of earshot. “I was supposed to tell them we broke up or something, but I forgot...”

“It’s okay,” Minho replied. “It would’ve been weird if your ex was hanging around your kitchen, right?” He laughed. He was right, Jisung thought, Minho was always right. “Besides, it’s not like anything’s gonna change," he added.

“What do you mean--?” Jisung stared at Minho, wide-eyed and brows slightly furrowed in mild confusion. He watched as Minho slowly made his way towards him, until he was holding Jisung’s face with both hands, thumbs caressing his cheeks. "Hyung?"

“I just wanna make sure I wasn’t imagining things that night,” Minho whispered. “Please, Jisungie. Please let me do this.”

Jisung closed his eyes.  _ Yes _ , it meant, and Minho understood because it’s not even a second later that his lips were on Jisung’s and they were kissing.

Jisung was now sure that they  _ did _ kiss on that one drunken night, because he remembered how kissing Minho felt like, but it was so much better this time that he wasn’t drunk. Every sensation felt clearer to him, every time their lips parted and closed, every sharp intake of breath. He felt how Minho’s lips moved against his own, how Minho’s teeth gently grazed his bottom lip, how Minho slid his tongue into his mouth to meet with his. Jisung registered how Minho’s lips tasted faintly of the sugarfree gum he always chewed that Jisung  also really liked, but Minho still tasted better.

Soon enough, their kisses were turning less and less careful, while their fingers on each other’s hair started gripping tighter and harsher, until Minho was lifting Jisung up onto the kitchen counter, trailing kisses along his neck and jaw, making Jisung sigh and moan  _ 'Hyung' _ softly, before moving back up to crash their lips together.

“Oh-- Woah!" Younghyun's voice boomed from across the kitchen, making Jisung abruptly push Minho away. "Hey, yeah, sorry for barging in, but please don’t make out on the counter,” Younghyun said. “No making out on the counter, on the dining table, on the couch, at the stairs, or just anywhere anyone could suddenly walk in on you, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Jisung couldn’t help but roll his eyes. As if he hadn’t walked in on his brother making out with his fiancée back when they weren’t even engaged yet.

Younghyun ignored him and turned to look at Minho. “I trust you, okay?”

Minho took in a breath and gulped before answering, “Yes.”

“Good. I’m just gonna get some water then I’m leaving.” Younghyun turned to face Minho again. “In case you didn’t know,” he whispered loudly enough for even Jisung to hear, “Jisung’s room is the second door to your left when you go up the stairs.”

“Hey!” Jisung threw a crumpled paper towel at his brother. “Stop it!”

“Bye, kids!” Younghyun called before leaving the two again in silence.

_ Awkward _ silence.

None of them spoke because, really, none of them knew what to say. They were both still breathing heavily, trying to avoid each other’s eyes and hide their reddening faces.

“What happened?” Hyunjin asked when he, Seungmin, and Felix finally got back, with Jeongin tagging along behind them.

“Why do you look so… weird?” Seungmin noted.

“You burned the cookies, didn’t you?” Felix accused.

_ Oh shit,  _ Jisung thought. They forgot about the cookies, too.

It had been a little over a month since what happened in Jisung’s kitchen, and thankfully neither he nor Minho had mentioned anything about it, so they immediately got back to their  _ normal, unawkward friendship _ . None of their friends mentioned anything about Jisung getting drunk that night, either, or about Minho holding his hand the entire time. They were supposed to act like boyfriends, anyway, and all their friends knew it.

Still, Jisung couldn’t help but think about how he liked kissing Minho, how he liked to hold his hand, how he liked to make him laugh. Even now as he was supposed to be studying for his midterm examinations coming up the following week, seated across Minho at the cafe where Jisung had also already become a regular. 

Coincidentally, his first scheduled exam was for his physics class, and because he'd fallen asleep more than a couple times, he was reading Minho’s notes to study. Jisung was really envious of Felix, who had dropped the class three weeks into the semester, claiming it wasn’t even that interesting. Felix had even tried to convince Jisung to drop the class, too, but Jisung refused to do so because, although he didn’t find the class particularly interesting, either, there were  _ other things _ he found interesting during class, like how Minho twirled his pen between his fingers and how Minho usually played stupid games on his phone and how Minho  doodled stuff in his notebook in between jotting down notes.

There were so many things about Minho that Jisung found interesting, really, but none of those were his physics notes.

During one particularly boring day in the latter part of the semester, a month after their midterm exams, Seungmin tried to invite Jisung to a movie.

**Flower Boy Kim Seungmin:** movie later with hyunjin, felix, and jeongin @ 2 pm.

**Flower Boy Kim Seungmin:** pls reply asap. we’re in line for tickets.

**Jisung:** i have class until 2:30

**Flower Boy Kim Seungmin:** ???

**Flower Boy Kim Seungmin:** since when has that stopped you?

**Jisung:** start of sem. gotta get that bread u know

**Flower Boy Kim Seungmin:** YOU CUT ALL YOUR CLASSES BUT YOU CAN’T CUT THAT STUPID PHYSICS LECTURE?!

**Flower Boy Kim Seungmin:** IT’S BC MINHO-HYUNG’S THERE, ISN’T IT?!

_ Yes _ , Jisung didn’t want to say. It was because Minho was there. Jisung enjoyed his boring class because Minho was there, because sometimes Minho gave Jisung coffee, sometimes Minho cracked inappropriate jokes at the most random times, sometimes Minho let Jisung lean his head on his shoulder and sleep through the entire period, and sometimes Minho held Jisung’s hand and drew patterns on it with his thumb, making Jisung smile so wide he always wondered if their other classmates noticed.

Jisung enjoyed all of those things that Minho did, even if he wasn’t completely sure why. He liked to think Minho enjoyed their hour and a half class as much as he did, too, so when one day while he and Changbin were waiting for Minho and Woojin at the building’s lobby and Changbin told him  _ why  _ Minho always attended their physics lectures, Jisung felt somewhat deflated.

“You know,” Changbin said after a bite from his kimbap roll, “Minho-hyung's maxed his allowed absences for all his classes except for that physics lecture you both have. We even had to reschedule Chan-hyung’s birthday lunch for him.”

“Really?” Jisung asked, eyes widening in curiosity. “He must like physics a lot.”

Changbin laughed, almost coughing out his food. “No, hyung  _ hates _ physics,” he said. “There’s just someone there he really likes.”

“Oh."

Jisung wasn’t sure why he was very disappointed upon hearing Minho  _ liked _ someone in their class, even though a logical part of him told him it actually made sense.

He tried to think of who it might be. There were plenty of pretty girls in their class; there was of course the girl who always sat beside Minho, Kim Dahyun, the one he'd always talked to since the first day of class. But Jisung and Minho kissed once, so that might've also meant that Minho wasn’t straight, right? There were lots of cute guys, too, anyway. One of them, Haechan, Jisung found particularly cute, but not in the same way he found Minho cute. Actually, no, Jisung thought; Minho was pretty, beautiful even, and he was probably the prettiest, most beautiful person Jisung knew.

He immediately gave up thinking about it, though. He didn’t even know Minho’s type.

“To see, I meant,” Changbin then added hastily. “Someone he likes to see—.”

“What’s Minho-hyung's type?” Jisung interrupted, curiosity taking the best of him. Not jealousy, he insisted to himself, really just curiosity. “I mean—”

“I know what you mean,” the other interrupted back, “and lucky for you he once told me his type is someone who’s annoyingly cute, loud, has an older brother, and has cheeks he wants to poke.”

“Isn’t that too specific?”

Changbin shrugged. “It is,” he confirmed before adding, “Also, someone his cats like. That’s really important for him.”

  
  


“Do your cats like me?” Jisung asked Minho one evening while they were out (and supposed to be studying). “They like me, right?” He wasn’t sure why he wanted so badly to know whether Soonie and Doongie liked him or not; it wasn’t like he was the person Changbin was talking about the other day, or something. Still, Jisung wanted to at least measure up to that person.

“Why are you asking?” Minho answered without looking up from his book.

“I just want to know.”

“Why? You can’t even tell them apart.”

“Hey, I got them right yesterday!”

“You did?” Minho finally looked up in mock surprise.

Jisung did in fact get the cats’ names correctly yesterday when he'd gone to Minho’s house for the latter's mini birthday celebration, which Jisung had really just invited himself to. He did show up with a gift and a box of pizza, at least.

“I’m not that dumb, you know?” Jisung said.

“Yeah,” Minho smiled, and for some reason it made Jisung’s insides swirl. “You’re just dumb most of the time.” Then he added, in barely a whisper, “Maybe that’s why I like you.”

“What?” Jisung was sure he misheard.

Minho cleared his throat “I said, yes,” he said, eyes now glued back to his book, but Jisung noticed his cheeks were a bit pink. It was pretty cold inside the cafe, though, so it made sense; Jisung made a mental note to ask the staff later to adjust the air conditioner. “My cats like you.”

“Yes or yes?” asked Minho when he settled down beside Jisung before their class started.

“Yes?” Jisung answered. He didn’t mean to answer the question, he just wanted to know what Minho needed. It was too late to take it back, though.

“It’s a dare, then,” the older announced.

“What?”

“Our prof’s announcing who’s exempted from the final exam, right?”

Jisung nodded.

“The one who gets exempted gets to choose what to post on the other’s Instagram,” Minho explained. “Good luck.”

“What if we’re both exempted?” Jisung asked, even though he's sure it was unlikely; Minho just shrugged, but Jisung was sure he knew it, too. Add that to the fact that luck really wasn’t on Jisung’s side that day; aside from forgetting his one and only pen he uses for everything, he also forgot his wallet at home. And, of course, unsurprisingly, he wasn’t exempted from the exam.

“I get to choose three photos,” Minho said while they were walking along the hallway after their class ended. “I have a lot of embarrassing drunk photos of you.”

Jisung stopped in his tracks, grabbing Minho’s hand to stop him, too. “I didn’t even agree to this,” he whined. He expected Minho to say something witty back, like he normally would, not for him to just quietly stare at their intertwined hands with his pretty lips slightly parted. Jisung noticed this and immediately tore his hand away. “Sorry.”

Minho blinked once, twice, shook his head slightly before looking back at Jisung. “I’m hungry,” he said. “You wanna go grab some lunch?”

“Oh.”  _ Yes, _ Jisung wanted to grab lunch with Minho. “But I don’t have money. I forgot my wallet at home.”

“You don’t have to worry about that.”

“I’m supposed to meet with Felix, though. You wanna just come with?”

“Nah,” Minho said with a dismissive wave of his hand (the one that Jisung held just a few minutes ago, and also  _ maybe, probably _ wanted to hold again). “I’ll just ask Woojin-hyung.”

“Okay.” Disappointment flooded Jisung and he didn’t even know why. Maybe it was because Minho wanted to eat lunch with Woojin rather than him and Felix, although he knew it made complete sense because Minho and Woojin were close friends.

_ Minho and Woojin are really close _ , he thought to himself.  _ Really, really close. They look good together, too. _

“Jisungie,” the older suddenly spoke again, startling Jisung. “Are you and Felix…”

“Huh?— Oh, Felix! Hey!” Jisung waved at the blond boy with the bright smile making his ways towards them before turning back to Minho. “I’m sorry, am I and Felix  _ what _ ?”

“Nothing.” Another dismissive wave of Minho’s hand (Jisung  _ really _ wanted to grab it again) and then he was saying goodbye as soon as Felix was in front of them. “See you guys around,” he said with a smile.

The next day, while Jisung was busy cramming an oral report for his majors inside the library, Seungmin suddenly came up to him out of nowhere. “Hey, I saw your Instagram posts,” he said. “All three of them.”

“Yeah,” said Jisung, rolling his eyes. “I know you did.” When Seungmin just looked at him expectantly for a good minute, he added, “What about it?”

“You didn’t reply to my messages.”

“What was I supposed to reply to that?” Jisung complained, thinking back to the messages Seungmin had sent him last night, all just full of stupid emojis that didn't make sense to him. 

“Don’t raise your voice, okay?" Seungmin shushed him. "And I don’t know, maybe explain?”

Jisung was confused. What was he supposed to explain? He even indicated in the captions that it was just a dare. Although, admittedly, it was a weird choice of photos, even for Jisung.

Last night, while Jisung was busy scrolling mindlessly through his social media accounts instead of working on his requirements, Minho’s name suddenly popped up in his notification panel, and with it came two photos of Minho himself and a short clip of the two of them walking somewhere around the campus. Those were what Minho made Jisung post on his Instagram account, not the drunk photos Jisung was expecting. At first, he was relieved and even thankful because who would want to post embarrassing drunk photos of themselves? But then Seungmin sent him a message just seconds after he posted the first photo. After the last post, Hyunjin and then Felix and then Chan and then even Changbin sent him some stupid emoji, too. Jisung didn’t get what they wanted to say, so he didn’t bother replying, also maybe because he was slightly annoyed at his friends seemingly knowing something he didn’t.

He sighed. “Look, Seungmin,” he said. “You’re my best friend and you know I’d tell you everything, right? But I  _ really _ don’t get what you’re implying.”

“Well,” Seungmin nodded. He said the words slowly, as if hesitating for a teenie, tiny bit, “Do you like him?”

Jisung just blinked. He probably just didn’t hear his friend clearly. “What?” he asked.

“Do you like Minho-hyung? I mean, you’ve always talked about him a lot even back then, but now…”

Jisung  _ did _ talk about Minho a lot, now that it was mentioned. Even back in high school, when he used to be bitter that Minho was more like Younghyun than he himself was; he realized he had always ranted to his friends about how smart, cool, popular, and handsome Lee Minho was. Maybe he  _ did  _ like Minho. “I guess,” he answered. “I mean, I used to not like him back in high school, but I guess we just never really had the chance to be friends back—.”

“No, Jisung, I mean, do you like him in  _ that  _ way?”

“In  _ what  _ way?”

“You know...”

“No, Seungmin, I don’t.”

“Jisung, you’re my best friend in the entire world, but you’re impossible.”

“What did I do?”

“Nothing,” Seungmin sighed. “You should go talk to hyung, or something. I gotta go, Hyunjin’s already waiting outside. You sure you don’t wanna come?”

“Yeah, gotta finish this shit,” Jisung nodded, he was still confused at what his best friend was trying to say, but right now finishing the slides for his report was more important.

“Okay. Make sure to eat lunch, though. See you.”

“See you later, Seungmin.” And then Jisung was left again inside the library, pretending he didn’t notice the librarian staring daggers at him while he went back to working on his slides.

It finally dawned on Jisung that he  _ did _ like Lee Minho -- someone he was convinced he hated for such a long time -- in  _ that _ way, at what seemed to him like the most random moment.

It happened during their last physics lecture, a week before their final exams: Jisung was about to fall asleep as he was absently watching Minho jotting down notes and deadlines on his notebook using his right hand, when he suddenly switched the pen to his left.

“You’re ambidextrous?” Jisung exclaimed, now very much awake as if he just discovered the most interesting thing in the world. Then he remembered they were in class so he lowered his voice. “Hyung, that's so cool!” he whispered.

If Jisung had known this back in high school, he would’ve been resentful about that fact. Now, though, he was just amazed… and  _ attracted. _ He was attracted to Minho. And what better time to realize that than halfway through the most boring physics lecture Jisung had ever sat through yet, with Minho right next to him leaning on his armchair, and Jisung was suddenly too aware that their shoulders were touching?

It didn’t help that the two of them had indeed been spending more and more time together. Because Felix had dropped the only class he and Jisung were both in, Jisung had been sticking with Minho almost since the start of the semester. They walked to their classes together, they ate lunch together, they studied at Minho’s favorite cafe together, they hung out at each other’s house and with each other’s friend group, and it all just felt natural.

But Jisung knew now wasn’t the time to think about his feelings. Finals were coming up again, and he barely passed some of his major subjects last midterm exams, so he really needed to focus at the moment. He didn’t need more distractions, which was why when Minho invited him over to his place for an all-nighter study session with his friends, Jisung immediately declined even though he really wanted to go. Maybe he should’ve just gone with Minho, anyway, because being stuck studying with Seungmin and Hyunjin wasn’t exactly the most fun experience; although, admittedly, he did get a lot of studying done because of the lack of distractions.

Still, Jisung missed his biggest distraction.

Finals week was finally over once again. The academic year was finally over, and while Jisung might still not be sure of his degree program, at least he passed his sophomore year and he could freely choose whether he wanted to continue or not. Tonight, though, he didn’t need to think about that. He didn’t need to think about anything, really, because tonight he was out with his friends, at a bar, dancing and drinking like all the other students around them who had just finished their semesters, too. Maybe some of them were sure of what they wanted, like Hyunjin and Seungmin. Maybe some of them were just letting things happen however things should, like Felix. Maybe some of there were graduating, too, like Minho.

Minho.

Somehow, Jisung’s thoughts always led back to Minho. Even tonight, while his head was buzzing with alcohol and he was jumping up and down to the loud EDM music that blasted through the stereos, he still managed to think about Minho.

Jisung shut his eyes close and shook his head violently, before opening them again. Somewhere to his far side, Seungmin and Hyunjin were sitting close together at a table, whispering and smiling and making eyes at each other; they looked a bit out of place in the sea of people whose hair clung to their foreheads and whose shirts clung to their bodies with sweat. If Jisung thought about it, though, Hyunjin and Seungmin were still  _ like  _ him. They were still college students who got to experience the same shit as Jisung, and who, just like him, wanted to have fun and celebrate surviving the past four months or so.

Felix, though, was nowhere to be seen, but surely he was enjoying himself, too.  _ He should be _ , Jisung thought as he started looking around for his friend, but the dim lights and the big crowd and the dizziness he felt from the alcohol he’d intaken weren’t helping. He tried squeezing his eyes shut again in an attempt to make them less blurry. When he opened his eyes, he was met with the most beautiful face he had ever seen.

_ Am I drunk? _ he asked himself. He closed his eyes again, shook his head, and opened them again. The most beautiful face was still there, and it was moving closer towards him.

_ Minho-hyung? _

“Minho-hyung!” Jisung shouted as he made his way towards the older, who already had his arms outstretched and ready to catch a swaying Jisung in his arms. “Minho-hyung! Hi!” he shouted.

“Hey.” Minho wrapped his arms around Jisung’s body, and Jisung felt energized, like he could keep dancing and jumping up and down all night as long as Minho’s arms were still around him. “Jisungie, you’re already drunk?” Minho laughed, and it sounded so loud and so beautiful in Jisung’s ear and he really wanted to hear it again.

“It’s so unfair!” he said, resting his head on Minho’s shoulder; he felt the older stiffen, but he didn’t care. He blamed the alcohol. “Even your laugh is beautiful.”

And there it was again, Minho’s laugh. It didn’t matter to Jisung if Minho was laughing  _ at  _ him, he just wanted to hear him laugh. Jisung just wanted to hear his voice. Jisung wanted to hear him say his name.

“Jisung, what—?”

“Woah,” Jisung looked up to Minho’s face, his eyes wide open and mouth parted in amazement. “You heard my thoughts?” Minho just stared at him with an expression Jisung couldn’t read. It didn’t matter, though; Jisung liked that Minho was looking at him. He liked that Minho was giving him attention. He liked Minho.

“I want to kiss you,” Minho said.

Suddenly Jisung felt sober. “Okay,” he said. He really did feel sober as he looked into Minho’s eyes, then at his pretty lips that were slightly parted and were moving closer and closer until—.

“Minho!” someone called from not too far behind him. The voice sounded familiar to Jisung.  _ Woojin? _ he thought. Of course Woojin was there; of course, Minho didn’t come there to see Jisung. Minho came there to enjoy and laugh and drink and celebrate with  _ his friends _ , not with Jisung. Chan and Changbin were probably there, too.

“Coming!” Minho shouted back. There's a look of disappointment that flashed briefly on his face when he looked back at Jisung, who felt disappointed, too. “I’m taking you back to your friends, okay?” Minho told him. Jisung just nodded as he let Minho lead him through the crowd of sweaty, swaying bodies attempting to take Minho and his arms and his eyes and his lips away from him. He circled his arms tightly around Minho’s waist, rested his cheek against his shoulder, and closed his eyes. He didn’t want anyone to take Minho from him.

A few minutes later and Jisung was sitting down. He didn’t know how he got there, he couldn’t remember how, but he knew Minho’s arms around him were gone and a hand was now rubbing circles on his back. “Seungminnie!” Jisung exclaimed, realizing who it was. “Where’s Minho-hyung?”

“He left,” Seungmin said. “He’s with his friends, I think.”

“I want to see him.”

“You’ll see him tomorrow.”

“I found Felix!” Hyunjin announced; he was pointing to his right, or was it left? Jisung wasn’t sure; his head was spinning. “He’s over there, uh, making out with Minho-hyung’s friend.”

“The short one?” Seungmin asked. Hyunjin nodded. “Oh, god. Go get him.”

“How am I supposed to go get him, Seungmin? I can’t just do that while he’s sticking his tongue down someone’s throat.”

“You can, actually,” Jisung slurred. “Just be more assertive.”

“Seungminnie’s the more assertive one.”

“Seungmin, go get Felix!” Jisung ordered his best friend.

“I’m never drinking out with you guys again,” Seungmin said, even though he was already making his way to where Felix was.

“He says that every time,” Jisung muttered. “Hyunjinnie, can you get me some water? Please. There’s a convenience store—”

“I can’t leave you here, dummy.”

“No, it’s okay! I’m not that drunk. Please. I might puke in your car if—”

“Okay, okay, please don’t do that,” Hyunjin said. “Seungminnie's not gonna like that. You have to stay here, though; he's gonna be back soon, alright?”

Jisung raised his right hand. “I will,” he promised.

Just a few minutes after Hyunjin left, someone came up to him. “Hey, cutie,” said some random guy Jisung didn’t know. “You alone?” he asked as he sat down on the seat beside Jisung, immediately putting his arm around the boy’s shoulders.

“I’m not alone,” answered Jisung. He tried to push the guy away, but he felt too weak.

“I don’t see anyone,” the guy said. “What do you say we go somewhere more private?”

“No, thanks, I’m good.” Jisung was still trying to shove him away, but the guy was insistent. “Please stop touching me,” Jisung tried to say.

“Hands off.” The voice startled Jisung, making him look up. He saw a guy standing in front of him, but his vision was still a bit blurry and his head was still spinning. The voice seemed really familiar, though.

“Who the fuck are you?” The person beside him questioned. He still sounded scary, but Jisung felt the person’s hold around him loosen. Whoever the other person was, he was probably scarier.

“I said, hands off my boyfriend, you dick.”

_ Boyfriend? _ Jisung didn’t have a boyfriend. He had a fake boyfriend, though, but that was months ago. He and Minho weren’t fake-dating anymore.

“Wait,” Jisung whispered, squinting at the person standing in front of him. “Minho-hyung?”

“Jisungie, babe, let’s go,” Minho took his hand and tried to pull him up.

_ But Hyunjin told me to wait here _ , he wanted to say, but Minho’s hand was warm and soft and it fit perfectly in Jisung's so he stood up, only to be pulled back down by the stranger beside him.

“Not so fast,” the guy snarled. “I found him first. Maybe when we’re done, I’d give him to you, yeah?” he told Minho. “Or maybe you wanna join us. That’d be fun, right?”

Jisung wanted to cry. He was too drunk to understand what the guy was saying, but he knew he didn’t want this stranger’s arm around him and said stranger's hand on his thigh. He just wanted to hold Minho’s hand and go home and cuddle and feel warm and safe.

Minho, though, looked like he wanted to kill someone. Maybe he would have, if Woojin and Chan hadn’t arrived.

“Hey, man,” Woojin told the stranger, his voice calm but firm and authoritative, “I think it might best if you leave. There’s three of us here.”

Surprisingly, the stranger  _ did _ actually leave, but not without raising his middle finger at each of them.

“Well, that was easy,” commented Chan. “I thought he was gonna fight you. But why the fuck is Jisung here alone?”

“I don’t know,” answered Minho. He was already sitting down beside Jisung now, his arm wrapped protectively around the younger. “His friends were here earlier.”

“Oh,” Woojin said. “You should stay with him. We’re gonna try to find Changbin. Pretty sure he’s already drunk.”

Even when the stranger (and Woojin and Chan) had already left, Minho’s arm was still wrapped around Jisung, and it made him feel safe.

“Thanks,” Jisung whispered. He wasn’t sure if Minho even heard him, but it was okay. “I like you,” he whispered, too.

When Jisung  turned to look at Minho, he was smiling, and Jisung wanted kiss him again. He wanted to kiss Minho’s neck, and so he did. When Minho didn’t move away, Jisung kissed his jaw, too, and his cheek, and he really wanted to kiss his lips, too. He already had his hand on Minho’s cheek when someone suddenly flung their arms around his neck, startling him and Minho.

“Jisungie!” It was Felix. Jisung sighed; no matter how much he wanted to kiss Minho, he couldn’t possibly get mad at Felix for ruining the moment, especially when Felix was drunk and being extra clingy.

Minho cleared his throat. “Do you guys have a ride?” he asked Seungmin, who had just appeared after Felix, followed by Hyunjin, Chan, Woojin, and then Changbin.

“Yeah,” Seungmin nodded. “Hyunjin’s driving us home.”

“Hyunjin?” exclaimed Minho, “Didn’t he drink?”

“I did,” it was Hyunjin who answered this time. “Just a bottle of beer. I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not! You’re not supposed to be driving when—.”

“Dude, chill,” Woojin said to Minho, or at least, Jisung thought it was Woojin. “I get you’re worried about Jisung but you don’t have to shout.”

“It’s okay, hyung,” Hyunjin replied.

Jisung was sure there was something else they talked about, but his head already hurt too much, he couldn’t follow the conversation anymore even if wanted to. He just let Felix rest his head on his lap until he himself also passed out, knowing Minho was worried about him.

Jisung woke up late the next morning to Hyunjin screaming at him to wake up. “Fuck off, Hyunjin,” he said weakly. Hyunjin didn’t stop screaming. “Hyunjin, shut up.” He pulled the covers over his head, but he could still hear Hyunjin screaming at him. “Hyunjin, I’m sorry!” he shouted. And then Hyunjin  _ did _ shut up, too abruptly, mid sentence.

“Stupid fucking alarm,” Seungmin grunted. It was just Hyunjin’s alarm, which Jisung assumed Seungmin turned off, although there really was no use turning it off now since all of them were already awake except for Hyunjin. “He never even wakes up to this,” Seungmin complained.

“My head hurts,” Felix said. He was lying down beside Jisung on a mattress on Seungmin’s bedroom floor. Jisung had no idea how they both got there, but he guessed he only had Seungmin and Hyunjin to thank.

“Can we get breakfast?” asked Jisung. “I feel like I puked all my insides out last night.”

“When Hyunjinnie wakes up,” replied Seungmin. “Maybe lunch, though. I don’t wanna wake him up yet.”

“I’m gonna go back to sleep, then,” Felix announced as he climbed into Seungmin’s bed, and Seungmin immediately gave way by getting out and settling beside Jisung.

Somehow, this made Jisung nervous.

“What is it?” Jisung asked as soon as his best friend lied down.

“Did you know Minho-hyung and Woojin-hyung drove us home?” Seungmin asked.

Jisung did not know. “What?” he exclaimed.

“Yeah. All four of them went home with us because Minho-hyung was worried Hyunjin would crash his car. They slept downstairs.”

“You’re telling me, Minho-hyung’s downstairs, sleeping on your couch?”

“No, I think they let the short one sleep on the couch,” Seungmin answered with a yawn. “And I said all four of them, not just Minho-hyung.”

The thought that Minho might be downstairs made Jisung really nervous. He felt like something happened last night that he couldn’t remember. “Are they still there?” he asked.

“No. They left early this morning.”

_ Thank god _ , Jisung thought. For some reason, he felt like he wasn’t ready to see Minho, which made no sense because he always wanted to see Minho.

“Is there something going on between you two?” Seungmin asked after a while. “I mean, you’re always together, you hang out at his house, you go on coffee dates. If I didn’t think you liked him, I’d think you’re replacing me as your best friend.”

“I’d never do that,” Jisung assured him. Although he did feel guilty because Seungmin was right, he'd been spending more time with Minho than his own friends the past semester, but he did have their mismatched schedules to blame. Jisung had never thought of any od the time he'd spent with Minho as a date, though, but when Seungmin put it that way…

“I know you wouldn’t,” Seungmin said. “So?”

With no hesitation, Jisung answered, “I like him.”

“Are you gonna tell him?”

“I don’t know, Seungmin. Should I?” And then Jisung proceeded to talk about everything, from how he really enjoyed spending time with Minho and all the little things he did and quirks he had, to how he was sometimes irrationally jealous of Woojin because he and Minho were always together, to what Changbin had told him about Minho’s _'ideal_ _type.'_

In the end, all Seungmin said before Hyunjin finally woke up was, “You should tell him.”

***

Jisung chose what was probably really not the best time to confess to Minho.

They were all out for a movie one night after Jimin got back to Korea. Since Jisung still hadn't gotten to telling his family about his fake break up, Jimin still thought he and Minho were dating. Throughout the whole time they were together, Jisung and Minho had to pretend to be boyfriends again. Not that Jisung minded, anyway.

While the others were in line for the tickets, Minho volunteered to go buy some popcorn. Naturally, Jisung went with him without even being asked.

“Should we get cheese-flavored popcorn or barbecue-flavored?” Minho asked when they were already in line. “I think we should get both. We should get drinks, too. What do you like?”

“Minho-hyung, I like you,” Jisung blurted out. Nevermind all the other people around them who definitely overheard him embarrassing himself.

“Hm?”

“I like you.”

“I know.”

“No, hyung. Like, in an  _ ‘I wanna hold your hand and kiss you’ _ way.”

“I know,” Minho repeated. This time, he slid his hand in Jisung’s, intertwining their fingers together. “I like you, too.”

“Are we dating for real now?” Jisung asked, trying hard not to smile too widely. He couldn’t believe it was  _ that _ easy.

Minho finally turned to look at him, smiling. “Weren’t we already, though?”

**Author's Note:**

> bye


End file.
